A-void-ing the CMB cold spot – astrobites

A-void-ing the CMB cold spot

Diagram showing a sphere on which the CMB temperature measurements of Planck are marked by colors. The sphere is colored with red and blue patches which have approximately the same intensity, except for a large dark blue region in the center. An inset shows this dark region in more detail

The cold spot is a strange feature in the CMB that has puzzled astronomers for years. Today’s authors use gravitational lensing to find at least a partial cause: A giant supervoid extending 1.8 billion light years!